Well Chris has managed to get his hands on Roger's (Cliff Hanger) Jedi Homebrew. This is an Airtech Jedi fuselage and wings made by foamwings.com. This video was it's maiden flight with Chris at the controls. I love this plane, I am so jealous!
JEDI HOMEBREW MAIDEN FLIGHT from Chuck Glider on Vimeo.
Saturday, 11 May 2013
Tuesday, 9 April 2013
Is Winter Nearly Over?
This winter has been a grueller! The boys and myself have met at a few slopes but only managed an hour or so's flying as our fingers were turning blue and going numb with the cold.
In our area of S Wales we're blessed with many slopes facing most directions but, we are short on slopes facing south and south east. Last Sunday, Mark and Chris were going to fly the SE slope of The Garth, at the southern end of the A470 but, Big Phil and myself decided to try a slope closer to home, in fact only a 15 minute drive from my house, and 5 minutes for Phil, and a slope we haven't tried before as we rarely get a south easterly.
So Phil and I parked up and marched up to the slope. The wind was very light to begin with so we decided to chuck up the Wildthing and Weasel, stooging around for a while until the wind picked up enough to throw up the mouldies, a Banana and a Whisper.
The flying was no great shakes that day due to the light breeze and, we only managed a couple of hours as our fingers were becoming numb with the cold again. But that slope certainly has potential when an easterly or south east blows.
Here is a clip of Phil launching his Speedo.
In our area of S Wales we're blessed with many slopes facing most directions but, we are short on slopes facing south and south east. Last Sunday, Mark and Chris were going to fly the SE slope of The Garth, at the southern end of the A470 but, Big Phil and myself decided to try a slope closer to home, in fact only a 15 minute drive from my house, and 5 minutes for Phil, and a slope we haven't tried before as we rarely get a south easterly.
So Phil and I parked up and marched up to the slope. The wind was very light to begin with so we decided to chuck up the Wildthing and Weasel, stooging around for a while until the wind picked up enough to throw up the mouldies, a Banana and a Whisper.
The flying was no great shakes that day due to the light breeze and, we only managed a couple of hours as our fingers were becoming numb with the cold again. But that slope certainly has potential when an easterly or south east blows.
Here is a clip of Phil launching his Speedo.
Wednesday, 14 November 2012
Sunday Soaring
Sunday 11th November 2012 - Big Phil and I met up with Mark on the Ice Cream Slope at The Bwlch, well, he got there just a little before us. The wind was NW and very light to light but with thermals coming through.
Roger from Swansea joined us followed by Chris. We had all sorts of planes with us, Willow F3F, Cappucino, Speedo's, Weasel, Whisper and Oddessy's and we all had fun flying, even though aerobatics were mostly out of the question due to the light winds.
Mark and Chris also wanted some F3F practice as they are taking part in their first competition on the 18th November. So we set up a course and had a bash.
Roger from Swansea joined us followed by Chris. We had all sorts of planes with us, Willow F3F, Cappucino, Speedo's, Weasel, Whisper and Oddessy's and we all had fun flying, even though aerobatics were mostly out of the question due to the light winds.
Mark and Chris also wanted some F3F practice as they are taking part in their first competition on the 18th November. So we set up a course and had a bash.
Thursday, 18 October 2012
Wings Over Wales
Saturday 12th October 2012 I met up with Mark in the layby for the Ice Cream slope at The Bwlch just as a couple of lads were walking back from the slope. They were visitors from Wiltshire and were just having a break from flying for 10 minutes, so Mark and I went on towards the slope.
The weather was great with the sun shining and big, white, fluffy clouds drifting by in the 15mph ish northwesterly wind and Mark launched his new, Ron Broughton design Odyssey plank.
Chris turned up with his Odyssey along with the Wiltshire guys and we all had a great time flying until at around 2:30 when the wind swung to south westerly and rain clouds loomed overhead.
The weather was great with the sun shining and big, white, fluffy clouds drifting by in the 15mph ish northwesterly wind and Mark launched his new, Ron Broughton design Odyssey plank.
Chris turned up with his Odyssey along with the Wiltshire guys and we all had a great time flying until at around 2:30 when the wind swung to south westerly and rain clouds loomed overhead.
Saturday, 6 October 2012
Phil decided to get himself a Speedo as he's been watching me fly mine and seeing how much fun I've been having with it.
Last Sunday wasn't the best day for a maiden on the Meio with drizzly, misty showers and a 25 mph south westerly blowing, but this is what happened. Don't forget to change the video quality to HD.
Sunday, 9 September 2012
Summer?
Well, the wettest summer on record also felt it was like the coldest too. There have been very few flying days when I have removed my ski jacket, with wind chill temperatures on top of the Welsh mountains at around 4-5 degrees with a 20 - 30mph wind blowing.
There have been few new models turned up on the slopes this summer, probably due to most people not having the extra money to blow on 2.5m mouldies. I have, however, purchased, (at a bargain price) an X models Whisper, 2m mouldie, which is so easy to fly and would make the perfect first mouldie for someone moving on from foamie models.
Here's a little video, taken on a rare sunny day.
Whisper on Meio Common from Chuck Glider on Vimeo.
There have been few new models turned up on the slopes this summer, probably due to most people not having the extra money to blow on 2.5m mouldies. I have, however, purchased, (at a bargain price) an X models Whisper, 2m mouldie, which is so easy to fly and would make the perfect first mouldie for someone moving on from foamie models.
Here's a little video, taken on a rare sunny day.
Whisper on Meio Common from Chuck Glider on Vimeo.
Monday, 2 July 2012
Slope Heaven
Saturday 30th June
I met up with Mark at the lay by on Meio Common and up to the top we marched. Mark checked the wind speed which came out at 25-27mph and I launched the Wildthing to test the air. All was fine with good lift and turbulence only along the ridge line.
This was a good chance for me to maiden my latest acquisition, an X Models Whisper, 2m mouldie. Mark did the honours and gave it the old heave ho for me, just in case it decided it was going to do something unexpected. As it was, all was ok. I had to give it a few good clicks of down trim but that was all. Mark had told me not to do anything daft on this flight, I was a good boy though and made a few passes along the slope at altitude, tested the crow, which needed some elevator adjustment, and did a dive test, which showed the models CofG was ok with no tendency to pull out or tuck under. I tried a few loops, rolls, cuban 8's and half cuban reversals and she was fine, and very stable too.
As the day progressed Mark and I were joined by Chris and Pete, another flier from Pontypool. The winds increased to a whopping 44mph, which is more than I'm comfortable flying in, but I had to leave at about 2:30 anyway and left the guys having fun up there.
I met up with Mark at the lay by on Meio Common and up to the top we marched. Mark checked the wind speed which came out at 25-27mph and I launched the Wildthing to test the air. All was fine with good lift and turbulence only along the ridge line.
This was a good chance for me to maiden my latest acquisition, an X Models Whisper, 2m mouldie. Mark did the honours and gave it the old heave ho for me, just in case it decided it was going to do something unexpected. As it was, all was ok. I had to give it a few good clicks of down trim but that was all. Mark had told me not to do anything daft on this flight, I was a good boy though and made a few passes along the slope at altitude, tested the crow, which needed some elevator adjustment, and did a dive test, which showed the models CofG was ok with no tendency to pull out or tuck under. I tried a few loops, rolls, cuban 8's and half cuban reversals and she was fine, and very stable too.
As the day progressed Mark and I were joined by Chris and Pete, another flier from Pontypool. The winds increased to a whopping 44mph, which is more than I'm comfortable flying in, but I had to leave at about 2:30 anyway and left the guys having fun up there.
X Models Whisper 2m
Sunday 1st July
Sunday morning and Mark and I met up at Meio Common but, the wind was more westerly and Meio is definitely a south westerly or north westerly, so we transferred my gear into Marks car and headed up to the Bwlch.
On arrival it was a bit drizzly and miserable but we walked the track towards Mickey's slope, expecting to have to walk the extra distance to Mickey's West, but as it happened the wind was on the nearer south westerly slope.
Mark launched his Polecat and me the Wildthing to test the air, which was still a bit drizzly. The air was a bit slow and patchy but we could see the edge of the dark clouds above us in the distance with what looked like brighter weather beyond.
It wasn't long before those dark clouds and the drizzle passed and that brighter weather was with us, and with this new weather, the wind picked up to a constant 30mph, which on Mickey's equated to a HUGE amount of lift. There was no maneuver we couldn't do from straight and level, point her up, and a moudie went ballistic. We would have benefited from having some ballast, which is something I must get for the Whisper, but the Whisper flew great, I'd got the elevator setting on crow just right, making landings much easier and I enjoyed getting used to flying this new ship.
Chris joined us in the afternoon and flew his Air One, and we all had fun flying the foamies, but the weather changed again and along came the drizzle, and the excellent flying conditions we had enjoyed changed again, so we decided to pack up and go home.
All in all, we had a cracking weekends flying and already we are looking forward to the next one. Now please, can we have some T shirt weather!
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